September 30, 2024
(press release)
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the selection of 38 grant recipients across the country, totaling nearly 160 million USD, to support efforts to report and reduce climate pollution from the manufacturing of construction materials and products. The EPA estimates that the construction materials used in buildings and other built infrastructure account for more than 15% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. The grants will support the Biden-Harris Administration's Federal Buy Clean Initiative to increase demand for clean construction materials used in federal buildings, highways, and infrastructure projects in the United States. The grants will be awarded to businesses, universities, and nonprofit organizations serving all 50 states and will help disclose the environmental impacts associated with manufacturing concrete, asphalt, glass, steel, wood, and other materials. Ranging from 250,000 to 10 million USD, the grants will help businesses develop high-quality environmental product declarations (EPDs), which show environmental impacts across the life of a product and can catalyze more sustainable purchasing decisions by allowing buyers to compare products. Investments in data and tools will make high-quality EPDs available for 14 material categories, which include both new and salvaged or reused materials. These efforts will help standardize and expand the market for construction products with lower greenhouse gas emissions. They will make it easier for federal, state, and local governments and other institutional buyers to ensure the construction projects they fund use more climate-friendly products and materials. The grant selections include a diverse range of projects to help measure and ultimately reduce greenhouse gases. Examples pertaining to concrete and construction include: American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) ACLCA is a nonprofit organization for environmental life-cycle assessment (EGA) professionals in North America. ACLCA's committees provide members with a forum for sharing, learning, and developing tools, resources, and guidance to build capacity, spread knowledge, and enhance the application of LCA and life-cycle thinking. ACLCA's project focuses on three areas: workforce development, EPD standardization, and data integration and harmonization. The project's goals are to increase the number of practitioners in the field by establishing LCA competencies and other industry standards, to enhance EPD standardization across sectors by updating and enhancing ACLCA's product category rule (PCR) guidance and a PCR repository, and to establish a life-cycle inventory data center to curate and support background data for use in PCRs. This project will yield an adoptable framework to reduce embodied greenhouse gas emissions in construction materials and products. Belter Tech Inc. Belter Tech is addressing the global environmental impact of construction by combating greenhouse gas emissions and using waste glass, plastics, and polyisocyanurate foam from landfills for aggregate in cement/concrete production. This project will focus on contributing new and critical data for producing high-quality EPDs for alternative aggregate products and to establish robust tools to make the EPD process easier, faster, and more cost-effective for carboncapturing products. Their project to develop EPDs for sustainable construction materials will enhance transparency and efficiency in carbon-capturing product certification. Build Reuse A nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the reuse industry in the United States, Build Reuse will act as a pass-through entity to provide subawards and technical assistance to support the generation of EPDs for minimally processed salvage construction materials and products. Build Reuse plans to develop a digital LCA-EPD generator software tool, enhance its capabilities as a program operator, and create a subcategory PCR for salvaged and reprocessed construction products. The project will generate data on "average" use, quality, service lifespans, past uses, and end-of-life in key product group categories for use in product circularity activities such as design for reuse and materials passport development. Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation A partnership of the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) and the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) will deploy an industry-funded LCA-EPD generator and develop EPDs for composite construction materials and products. Their project will include developing new PCRs and modifying existing PCRs where needed, educating more than 200 manufacturers and their customers on the use of EPDs, and working with universities to develop gate-to-grave data that can be incorporated into EPDs. Cornell University This project will address gaps and challenges in the deconstruction-to-reuse value chain by convening experts across academia, industry, and nonprofit organizations. The group will develop a salvaged products passport (SPP) that combines an EPD+ data set with elements of a product catalog (or materials passport) to enable adoption of reuse by industry at scale. With their project partners-the Cornell University Circular Construction Laboratory, Urban Machine, Finger Lakes ReUsc, and Build Reuse-the grantee will develop a process and a template called salvage EPD (SEPD) that will function as a product catalog for salvaged materials when used with a materials passport. These two sources of documentation will form the SPP. The goals of the SPP are to spur market demand, enable application and procurement of salvaged materials, increase the transparency of greenhouse gas data, and assist businesses in disclosing and verifying this data. Heidelberg Materials US, Inc. Heidelberg Materials proposes to create a web-based tool that can help ready mixed concrete, cement, and aggregate facilities produce EPDs; connect data flows with corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting; and enable real-time adjustments. The goal of the tool is to incorporate all the data needed to produce EGAs, create EPDs, use benchmarking tools/EPD repositories, and publish EPDs. To assist and improve the industry as a whole, the tool will be made public. The creation of an efficient EPD builder holds the potential to revolutionize carbon accounting and decisionmaking that will drive sustainability across the industry, enhancing the competitiveness of environmentally conscious manufacturers. Holcim US, Inc. Holcim's EPD Accelerator Project will increase the transparency of data on environmental emissions associated with the production of construction materials, generate EPDs with a diversity of U.S. manufacturers, and drive market demand for lower carbon construction materials. These projects represent the three construction materials in Holcim's portfolio: cement, asphalt, and ultra-high-performance concrete. These projects will support the development, enhanced standardization and transparency, and reporting criteria for EPDs that include measurements of the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of the material or product associated with all relevant stages of production, use, and disposal, and conform with international standards for construction materials and products. International Code Council The International Code Council Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) is seeking to generate EPDs in partnership with the states of Washington and Oregon, USA. Through the Pacific Northwest (PNW) EPD Partnership, the project focuses on developing facility-specific EPDs for concrete, asphalt, steel, wood, and "emerging" products (such as salvage wood, tile, paint, windows, and roofing). The PNW EPD Partnership will take an integrated and collaborative approach to significantly improve the availability and quality of facility-specific, third-party-verified EPDs for building products and materials made and/or used in Oregon, Washington, and the greater PNW region by assisting manufacturers in disclosing and verifying their data through EPDs. The project intends to support more than 200 PNW manufacturers to develop more than 1000 new EPDs. This project will also have an education, outreach, and technical assistance component, primarily focused on businesses producing building materials. National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) NRMCA proposes to increase the quantity of ready mixed concrete EPDs by providing grants to producers to create EPDs from an additional 3000 plants (up from 1500 currently). NRMCA plans to provide data quality management oversight and training, as well as education for producers by training five EPD verifiers and certifying up to 500 EPD specialists through an online education system. NRMCA also plans to enhance its existing low-carbon concrete tool and host five low-carbon concrete training workshops per year for 5 years. NRMCA will work to improve PCRs and data availability for critical inputs, including lightweight aggregate and admixtures. NRMCA also plans to calculate new regional averages for EPDs. NRMCA will collaborate with various partners, including state ready mixed concrete associations, admixture suppliers, and academic institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. The grant will also focus on supporting smaller companies in remote areas, promoting geographic diversity in EPD development, and ensuring equitable workforce development by encouraging minority groups and women to become sustainability experts. National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association (NSSGA) NSSGA will improve the data quality and disclosure of construction aggregates that are upstream materials for concrete and asphalt. The project includes updating PCRs, improving data collection and verification instruments, and providing training and education. By creating EPDs, NSSGA will establish a comprehensive and accurate environmental impact profile for aggregates used nationwide. The initiative is in partnership with various organizations and numerous universities and state associations, emphasizing collaborative efforts to enhance data accuracy and sustainability practices. The project will improve the precision of EPDs by developing a digital twin platform and other advanced data collection tools, which will facilitate better environmental performance assessments. NSSGA will develop and disseminate training programs and educational resources in collaboration with university transportation centers and industry experts. This approach will foster immediate improvements in data quality and environmental practices as well as encourage long-term industry-wide adoption of sustainable practices. Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA, is leading the creation of the National Center for Sustainable Construction Materials to promote low-carbon construction materials (LCCMs) and generate EPDs for materials such as asphalt, concrete, steel, and their additives. In collaboration with 11 U.S. universities, the project will provide extensive training, create educational programs, and design tools and incentives for adopting LCCMs. It also focuses on benchmarking methods, identifying high-impact parameters beyond global warming potential (GWP), and integrating EPDs into construction specifications. The Center's efforts include K-12 outreach and workforce development to nurture future professionals in sustainable construction. Oldcastle Infrastructure, Inc. Oldcastle Infrastructure, Inc.'s project will focus on developing and publishing 15,405 facility-specific EPDs for asphalt, aggregates, ready mixed concrete, precast concrete, dry mix cement, masonry products, and hardscape products, as well as developing a workforce training program focused on EPD education and data collection. This project will be split across five tasks: facility selection, EPD training program implementation, data collection, EPD development/ verification/publishing, and performance tracking/reporting. It includes 667 production sites across 42 states. By disclosing and verifying this data through EPDs, Oldcastle will spur and meet market demand for low-carbon construction products. The comprehensive program, involving three CRH Americas business units, will rely on technical experts and consultants to ensure the EPD methods align with EPA criteria, thereby supporting sustainable procurement decisions and reducing embodied carbon in building materials. Portland Cement Association (PCA) PCA's project will provide technical assistance to help cement/supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) manufacturers develop facility-specific EPDs; improve cement and slag cement industry average EPDs and create new ones for coal ash and natural pozzolans; support the development of a single cementitious materials PCR to replace several cement and SCMs PCRs currently in use or development; and support the development and maintenance of an LCA and benchmarking tool for concrete mixture design. The project will be led by PCA with support from key industry partners including the Slag Cement Association (SCA), the American Coal Ash Association (ACAA), and the Natural Pozzolan Association (NPA). The project will substantially increase the number of facility-specific EPDs for cementitious materials, which are critical for reducing the carbon footprint of concrete. PCA will provide pass-through grants to eligible manufacturers and offer training and on-call technical assistance to help them develop, verify, and publish EPDs. Additionally, the project will support the creation of industry-average EPDs for materials that currently lack them, such as coal ash and natural pozzolans. By developing a single, comprehensive PCR for all cementitious materials and maintaining an LCA and benchmarking tool for concrete mixture design, the project will enhance data comparability and promote the use of cementitious materials with lower GWP. Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) This project focuses on updating the precast concrete PCR and producing product-specific EPDs across three trade associations: PCI, the National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA), and the American Concrete Pipe Association (ACPA). It will entail updating the existing PCR, developing an EPD generator, and providing training and support to member companies for producing EPDs. The project also allows for the creation of EPDs under the current PCR while an update is conducted. The project will empower precast concrete manufacturers to develop and produce compliant EPDs, providing transparent and verifiable embodied carbon information to buyers and sellers of precast concrete. The project will partner with NPCA and ACPA to implement the Precast Concrete Carbon Reporting project, reducing embodied greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Inflation Reduction Act and EPA guidelines. By enhancing the PCR and developing a new EPD generator tool, the project will support over 500 manufacturers in producing more than 1500 new or updated EPDs and ultimately positioning the U.S. precast concrete industry as a leader in embodied carbon reporting and disclosures. For more details on the grant recipients in other sectors, visit www.epa.gov/system/fíles/documents/2024-07/2024epd-grant-summaries-ira-60112-fínal-7.15.24.pdf Copyright American Concrete Institute Sep 2024
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